On 8/30/2017 2:41 PM, Jerry Osage wrote:
I lurk here, and post now and then. I've learned a lot, but I have a
question that I haven't seen answered.

I still do my plans with a T Square and Triangles. I think I would like
to learn SketchUp. I have watched their Getting Started videos and it
seems pretty simple - at least to do simple things. Is it? What is the
learning curve like? Any thoughts or suggestions will be appreciated.


I think the last time that I used a t square and triangles was in the
70's, I had a formal education in mechanical drafting and architectural
drafting.

Have you had any drafting courses? Do you know the tricks and shortcuts
to drawing manually? It will greatly help when moving on to CAD.

Anyway I began using CAD's in 1986 and up until about 8~9 years ago used
AutoCAD LT. Then I switched to Sketchup. I hope I never have to change
again. This program is is the bench mark now with woodworkers.

I am going to say that one of the most important things to learn
IMMEDIATELY is to make separate parts of a project into a component.
Highlight all parts of the object, right click, and select Make Component.

You will absolutely not progress beyond baby steps until you learn to do
this and it is very simple.

WHY?

All lines of a part or object will stick, stretch, and contort if you
try to move or modify them. Until you make all lines/pieces of an
object into a component you will not be able to add other attaching
lines/parts to the drawing with out creating havoc.

Think of taking a trip and you come to a fork in the road. One fork
goes to Components, the other fork goes nowhere.
If you take the fork to nowhere you will travel endlessly in the wrong
direction. At some point you will realize that you should have taken
the Component fork. You cannot take a short cut to get out of this
mess, you will have to go back to the fork in the road to to in the
correct, Component direction.

Look for videos that cover COMPONENTS. Don't go on until you understand
the importance of learning to use components.

Again making parts into components is STUPID SIMPLE. There is no excuse
to not learn to do this IMMEDIATELY. Otherwise yo might as well be
trying to draw blind folded.

Do you get my drift? LOL

In all honesty not using components makes using Sketch up extremely
difficult for EVERYBODY.

Past that Sketchup is pretty darn simple to learn, especially if you
have any CAD experience at all.

I will be happy to answer any questions you have, AFTER you have learned
how to makes components.